/*
 * Copyright � 2002-2011 the original author or authors.
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

namespace Spring.Validation;

/// <summary>
/// An object that can validate application-specific objects.
/// </summary>
/// <remarks>
/// <p>
/// The primary motivation for this interface is to enable validation to be
/// decoupled from the (user) interface and placed in business objects.
/// </p>
/// <p>
/// Application developers writing their own custom
/// <see cref="Spring.Validation.IValidator"/> implementations will
/// typically not implement this interface directly. In most cases, custom
/// validators woud be better served deriving from the
/// <see lang="abstract"/> <see cref="BaseValidator"/> class, with the
/// custom validation ligic being implemented in an override of the
/// <see lang="abstract"/>
/// <see cref="BaseValidator.Validate(object, IValidationErrors)"/>
/// template method.
/// </p>
/// </remarks>
/// <author>Aleksandar Seovic</author>
/// <seealso cref="BaseValidator"/>
public interface IValidator
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Validates the specified object.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="validationContext">The object to validate.</param>
    /// <param name="errors">
    /// The <see cref="ValidationErrors"/> instance to add any error
    /// messages to in the case of validation failure.
    /// </param>
    /// <returns>
    /// <see lang="true"/> if validation was successful.
    /// </returns>
    bool Validate(object validationContext, IValidationErrors errors);

    /// <summary>
    /// Validates the specified object.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="validationContext">The object to validate.</param>
    /// <param name="contextParams">Additional context parameters.</param>
    /// <param name="errors">
    ///   The <see cref="ValidationErrors"/> instance to add any error
    ///   messages to in the case of validation failure.
    /// </param>
    /// <returns>
    /// <see lang="true"/> if validation was successful.
    /// </returns>
    bool Validate(object validationContext, IDictionary<string, object> contextParams, IValidationErrors errors);
}